If Mr. Smith had come from the South Side

This is why God created the Internets.

To the broader country, Barack Obama is exoctic. From a black perspective, he is certainly atypical. But what has to be understood is that the whole point of white racism was to lump all black people together. Thus we're quite use to "exotic" black people. Malcolm X's mother was a biracial woman from Grenada. W.E.B. Du Bois was from overwhelmingly white Great Barrington, Massachusetts and traced a mixture of dutch and black ancestry in his family. Arturo Schomburg, the great chronicler of black diasporic history and culture, was Puerto-Rican. Marcus Garvey was Jamaicain. And so on...

Perhaps if you are white, Barack Obama represents the end of the idea that your next door neighbor could be president. But you should consider that just because Barack Obama isn't your next door neighbor, doesn't mean, he isn't mine.

Brilliant post, thoughtful comments.

And, by the way, Ross Douthat grew up in New Haven, attended private boarding school, and went to Harvard. He wouldn't know a real 'murican if she bit him in the ass neck.